2025, Volume 7
Aurel Lazăr, BETWEEN LOYALTIES AND INTERESTS: THE ROMANIAN–AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC DISPUTE OVER THE FETEŞTI–CERNAVODĂ RAILWAY SIGNALLING CONTRACT
Assistant Professor, Ph.D., George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences, and Technology of Târgu Mureş
Abstract:The article examines, from a historical perspective, the Romanian-American diplomatic dispute triggered in 1932 by the awarding of the contract for the signalling systems on the Feteşti–Cernavodă railway section to the French company Thomson-Houston, to the detriment of the American firm General Railway Signal. The study situates this episode within the broader context of Romania’s political and financial dependence on France, of American economic interests in oil, infrastructure and loans, and of the competition between the American principle of “equality of opportunity” and the logic of economic privileges granted to a strategic ally. Drawing on American diplomatic documents (from the Foreign Relations of the United States series) and the Romanian press, the article reconstructs the stages of the tender, the interventions of Paris, the firm démarches undertaken by Washington, and the attempts of the Romanian political elite to reconcile both partners. The conclusion highlights the “Feteşti–Cernavodă affair” as a case study of the limits of the economic sovereignty of a small state confronted with competing pressures from great powers, as well as a moment of clarification of the parameters of Romanian–American relations in the interwar period.
Keywords: diplomatic conflict, France, railway infrastructure, Romania, U.S.
Pages: 49 – 64